Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen

Download or read book Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen written by Andrew Scull and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1981-08 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Victorian Age saw the transformation of the madhouse into the asylum into the mental hospital; of the mad-doctor into the alienist into the psychiatrist; and of the madman (and madwoman) into the mental patient. In Andrew Scull's edited collection Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen, contributors' essays offer a historical analysis of the issues that continue to plague the psychiatric profession today. Topics covered include the debate over the effectiveness of institutional or community treatment, the boundary between insanity and criminal responsibility, the implementation of commitment laws, and the differences in defining and treating mental illness based on the gender of the patient.